Editor's note: Jamie Benn was not named as the winner of the Ted Lindsay Award. Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price won the award.

Original story (Posted June 23): Jamie Benn’s four-point performance in the final game of last season told a lot about the Stars captain.

One, it showed the respect he has from his teammates, who pushed hard to get Benn the NHL scoring title in an amazing last-gasp effort.

Two, it showed Benn’s ability to fight through pain and capped an inspired season in which he played all 82 games, needed double hip surgery afterward and still tallied 87 points.

Three, it gave a glimpse into Benn’s ability to raise his game as the pressure gets higher.

Benn will be celebrating the past season Wednesday night at the NHL awards ceremony in Las Vegas when he receives the Art Ross Trophy as leading scorer and is a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award, given to the league’s outstanding player as voted on by the players. But a lot of talk about the 25-year-old forward will concern the future.

“I think he might have been the best player in the league in the second half of the season, and he was doing that on two bad hips,” said Stars general manager Jim Nill. “I think the sky is the limit for Jamie Benn.”

Maybe the most interesting aspect of Benn’s game is one that’s barely been touched on in the NHL: his penchant for playing better when the game gets more intense. He did it in junior hockey, he did it in the AHL, he did it in the Olympics. But Benn’s Stars have made the playoffs just once in his six seasons, and that’s hardly a test of his next gear.

“He’s always had that ability to push himself even harder, and that’s one of the things that you love about Jamie,” said Les Jackson, the Stars’ assistant general manager, who helped draft Benn in 2007. “Every time he’s been challenged in his career, he’s taken it head on and proved he’s one of the best players in the game at that level.”

In fact, Benn said that challenging himself in junior hockey helped jump-start his career.

Benn had played both baseball and hockey growing up, and that was one reason he was playing Junior A level and not Major Junior before he turned 18. After posting 42 goals in 53 games in the British Columbia Hockey League, Benn was taken by the Stars in the fifth round (129th overall) and then was placed with Kelowna in the Western Hockey League — a big step up.

Benn landed on a Kelowna Rockets team with future NHLers Tyler Myers and Luke Schenn, and he immediately challenged himself to see how good he could be.

“They had some great players, and I tried to go against them in every drill. I tried to make sure I was going to push myself as hard as I could to get better,” Benn said. “I definitely think that was the turning point for me, where things got serious. I went from just sort of playing to playing with a purpose. I really started to push myself.”

That trend continued. In his second season with Kelowna, Benn led the playoffs in scoring and helped push the Rockets to the Memorial Cup final with 33 points (13 goals, 28 assists) in 19 games. After his rookie NHL season, Benn went down to the AHL and led the Texas Stars to the Calder Cup finals. He tallied 26 points (14 goals, 12 assists) in 24 games there.

And then he settled into an NHL run during which he wasn’t really given the opportunity to step up. He was moved to center and battled on a team that was on one of the tightest budgets in the league. Some will criticize Benn for not pushing that team into the playoffs, but he needed some help to take the next step.

When the cavalry arrived in the form of new ownership, new management and center Tyler Seguin, Benn again took another step forward. He qualified for the Olympics and helped Canada win the gold medal in 2014. In the playoffs, he tallied four goals in six games for the Stars, who exited in the first round.

And then during the past season, Benn pushed the limits. When Seguin went down with a knee injury, Benn stepped up again. He finished the season with 23 points (12 goals, 11 assists) in the final 12 games and stole the scoring title on the last night.

With two minutes left in a 4-1 win over Nashville, Benn scored an empty-net goal for the hat trick that put him one point from the title. Then, with his teammates pushing furiously, Benn picked up an assist on Cody Eakin’s goal with nine seconds remaining. It was a bittersweet moment for the captain.

“The goal is to make the playoffs,” he said, “not win the scoring title.”

Still, he appreciates the award as time goes on. It does mean a little more that his teammates push so hard for him. It does mean a little more that he was able to push himself a little higher.

It’s been that way for Benn his whole life, so why not take it to the next level?

“It’s funny,” said older brother and teammate Jordie Benn, “because he always wanted to hang out with me and my friends, and we were older and bigger, and I think that pushed him. He’s always wanted to prove himself.”

Jordie said nothing his little brother does surprises him anymore. He has seen too many times when Jamie has quietly dug in and found his next gear. And now, the expectations for the future get even higher.

Benn has been rehabbing his hips after surgery and is hoping to be ready around the start of the season. He said he will follow the instructions of the doctors and trainers, but he added that he plans to push himself pretty hard.

After last season, nobody would expect any different.

“He’s the true definition of a captain,” said defenseman Trevor Daley. “I’ve seen him since he came in as an 18-year-old, and he’s a special player. The amazing thing is, he’s only going to get better.”

Moving up

Jamie Benn has moved his scoring rate forward in almost every NHL season, and he won the league scoring title in 2014-15: